Need Help Lines in prints

[Jester1167]

Your test print doesn't look like CMYK, That's pretty dark blue and red compared to pure cyan and magenta. Even the yellow looks darker than the nozzle check.

 

[CPetersen]

Your test print doesn't look like CMYK, That's pretty dark blue and red compared to pure cyan and magenta. Even the yellow looks darker than the nozzle check.

You may be right, I just assumed that the built-in fill test (service menu) would use pure CMYK.
Anyway I just did another, here is a video first of all, maybe it gives some clues?:

And also a picture of the print in the video (its hard to see, but there is lines in the yellow also).

 

[CPetersen]

Take o look to the penknife holder pls. And move the printcariadge to the left side of the printer (mentenance position) and make o picture for as. Its important to see the surface of the printhead.

The penknife is fine (no touching).
Its difficult to take a good picture of the heads, but here's the best I managed to take.

 

[Cosmin]

Clean the metalic outline of the printhead...must be clear metalic...I see dirth on it. And after that in service mode make the default head alignment...in service mod not user mode.b

 

[CPetersen]

Clean the metalic outline of the printhead...must be clear metalic...I see dirth on it. And after that in service mode make the default head alignment...in service mod not user mode.b

The head alignment is good. It was 100% clean a couple of days ago, now its a little dirty, agreed I should clean it again, but the lines where there then aswell.

In lack of anything better to try, I am going to remove the heads, so I can closely inspect the surface and see if I can squeeze some cleaning fluid through them with a syringe (very gently) and leave them soaking until the new cap tops arrive. Unless someone tells me this is a bad idea.
I am pretty much left with the impression it must be the heads. I mean what else is there, when the alignment and feed is good.

 

[CPetersen]

Some picture of the various alignment checks I did yesterday (on bond paper). I think it all matches (fairly close) the descriptions in the service manual.

 

[Cosmin]

Make a best quality print...if is possible 12 pass and another print in low quality mode . Increase to the maximum the temperature for print and drier The issue is in the same position for both printheads.. . In my opinion the printheads are fine .

 

[CPetersen]

Make a best quality print...if is possible 12 pass and another print in low quality mode . Increase to the maximum the temperature for print and drier The issue is in the same position for both printheads.. . In my opinion the printheads are fine .

When increasing the passes the distance between the erroneous lines just get closer.
Anyway I have now removed the heads. Attached a good closeup photo and for now I leave them to soak as in the second picture (dipped in cleaning solution).

 

[Jim Hancock]

First, the internal fill test prints each head separately, pure color, no mixing. Your fill test is fine as far as purity goes.

I went back and zoomed in on the printed images and see a lot of blotchiness. Two questions - what is the heat setting and are you printing the images while in service mode? The heat is disabled in service mode unless it has been enabled in the system switch menu. Put your hand on the platen and see if it is hot. You should be running at least 38C or higher. What I'm seeing looks like "dot gain banding", which occurs when printing without heat or insufficient heat. The correct heat setting makes each ink drop dry quickly without spreading. Insufficient heat allows the individual drops to spread before drying. Where the pass boundaries meet, the ink drops attract each other (they have a charge on them) and create a pattern similar to what I am seeing. Proper heat dries the ink quickly enough to stop this.

 

[CPetersen]

First, the internal fill test prints each head separately, pure color, no mixing. Your fill test is fine as far as purity goes.

I went back and zoomed in on the printed images and see a lot of blotchiness. Two questions - what is the heat setting and are you printing the images while in service mode? The heat is disabled in service mode unless it has been enabled in the system switch menu. Put your hand on the platen and see if it is hot. You should be running at least 38C or higher. What I'm seeing looks like "dot gain banding", which occurs when printing without heat or insufficient heat. The correct heat setting makes each ink drop dry quickly without spreading. Insufficient heat allows the individual drops to spread before drying. Where the pass boundaries meet, the ink drops attract each other (they have a charge on them) and create a pattern similar to what I am seeing. Proper heat dries the ink quickly enough to stop this.

Thanks for the detailed reply.

I think only the fill test was ran in service mode, but I cannot remember for certain. Many tests were not run in service mode atleast.
The heat setting in the printer is 38C (default) and in versa works I used 37C. I did try to run tests with 40C and 44C (dryer) settings.
Once I remount the heads I will experiment with increasing the heat even more and do some side by side comparisons. It does make sense if it was related to that.

Also another question, would it make sense to swap the heads when I remount them. I noticed in the head shot counts that the magneta was way higher than the others, so if that is generally the most used colour, maybe its better to level out the wear?
On the other hand if I can avoid re-adjusting the heads I may just leave them as they were. Assuming they still work

 

[CPetersen]

Just to follow up, should anyone read up on this thread in the future.
After additional head cleaning, which involved squeezing cleaning fluid (gently) through the heads with a syringe connected to a damper.
The black/blue head would not print anything anymore, despite being extremely careful and gentle, I must have damaged the head somehow.
So after that, I ordered two new heads, which I received today. Mounted and done the basic adjustments.
And the stripes are gone, prints are perfect (to me anyway). So it seems afterall it was a fault on the heads that kept making the stripes/odd lines.

Thanks all for the input and help.

 

[TechnoLett]

I had a similar problem with my SP30V, I would first Align the heads ( Bias-Adjustment which is mechanical / Vertical Adjustment which is mechanical / Horizontal Adjustment which is manually adjusted on the printer / Bidirectional Adjustment which is manually adjusted. Also, make sure the heads are at 2.2mm height in the lower position to the platten!

 

[CPetersen]

I had a similar problem with my SP30V, I would first Align the heads ( Bias-Adjustment which is mechanical / Vertical Adjustment which is mechanical / Horizontal Adjustment which is manually adjusted on the printer / Bidirectional Adjustment which is manually adjusted. Also, make sure the heads are at 2.2mm height in the lower position to the platten!

Thanks. I already did the bias/vertical/horizontal etc. adjustments and all is good so far.
The problem was not the adjustments (as everything was checked and cross checked many times), but the head(s), I suspect mostly the Magneta / Yellow head as I can physically with the right light reflection see a line of about 0.5 - 1 mm accross it.